I saw the movie today, and I really enjoyed it! I did not care for Anne Hathaway - she was WAY over the top - but I liked the rest of the casting. I saw a couple of interviews in the last few weeks, and apparently all of the singing was live instead of done in a recording studio and over-dubbed. They even had an orchestra on set to keep it as real as possible.

There were grown men crying in the theater when it was over, and I had to wipe my eyes once or twice. Overall, I thought it was very well done.

What did you guys think?

_________________Ridiculous people on the internet are consistently ridiculous. -pandacookie

i thought anne hathaway was really good, actually. and i definitely got weepy a couple of times.

i would have liked it more if there were more than two or three lines of spoken dialogue. i mean, i know of les mis, but i was hoping this would be a more narrative, less musical version. (which is dumb, i know.) i think it's a really good movie and was really well done on a lot of levels. just not my cup of tea.

after 30 minutes, i thought i'd been watching for about 90. and by 60, i had to pee pretty badly. i held it, so that didn't help.

Yeah, it's definitely lengthy. I've seen the musical a couple of times, and I always feel a bit worn out by the last half hour, and this was no different.

I think my issue with Anne is that her performance would have been great on stage, where you have to do everything HUGE, but it seemed overacted in movie format. I could feel her reaching for the Oscar.

I appreciated that they basically made the musical into a movie. I fell in love with the musical, so none of the previous movie adaptations have really interested me. I love the songs, and the music just made me happy. :)

_________________Ridiculous people on the internet are consistently ridiculous. -pandacookie

going tonight with my mom and aunt. a bunch of my friends were in a (very high level) high school production of this. so for a good 4 months of my life it was all i ever heard about. i'm a little nervous.

That might be my main complaint, but I did really like it. And I did like Anne Hathaway, but maybe I have more of a tolerance for a bit of over-acting?

I was disappointed in Russel Crowe, though. His voice really didn't seem to be up to doing Javert justice. Pun not entirely intended.

Eponine bugged me - partly I didn't think she was really filling the role the way most of the rest of the cast was, and little details about her appearance - nice teeth, manicured eyebrows, that weird side-bang haircut - just kept bothering me and distracting me. I usually tear up at 'A Little Fall of Rain' but this one didn't really do it for me (though I liked the blocking on her taking the bullet for Marius).

I thought Amanda Seyfried was absolutely perfect as Cosette though. I cannot imagine a better choice for the role, and was really impressed with how her voice fit the character. And her costumes looked lovely!

I also appreciate, I guess, how much the cast killed themselves for this movie - I usually sort of roll my eyes at actors gaining/losing weight for roles, especially when it's dramatic/unhealthy/fast/whatever but in this case, because it was specifically to make her look deathly ill (and because Anne Hathaway has basically slammed the idea of anyone trying to mimic her) I appreciated the dedication of at least Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway making themselves look truly haggard. And man, how did his voice still sound okay after that long with no fluids?

I was disappointed in Russel Crowe, though. His voice really didn't seem to be up to doing Javert justice. Pun not entirely intended.

Eponine bugged me - partly I didn't think she was really filling the role the way most of the rest of the cast was, and little details about her appearance - nice teeth, manicured eyebrows, that weird side-bang haircut - just kept bothering me and distracting me. I usually tear up at 'A Little Fall of Rain' but this one didn't really do it for me (though I liked the blocking on her taking the bullet for Marius).

I thought Amanda Seyfried was absolutely perfect as Cosette though. I cannot imagine a better choice for the role, and was really impressed with how her voice fit the character. And her costumes looked lovely!

I also appreciate, I guess, how much the cast killed themselves for this movie - I usually sort of roll my eyes at actors gaining/losing weight for roles, especially when it's dramatic/unhealthy/fast/whatever but in this case, because it was specifically to make her look deathly ill (and because Anne Hathaway has basically slammed the idea of anyone trying to mimic her) I appreciated the dedication of at least Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway making themselves look truly haggard. And man, how did his voice still sound okay after that long with no fluids?

I agree with every bit of this.

_________________Ridiculous people on the internet are consistently ridiculous. -pandacookie

I almost came and started this right after I saw it, but by then it was 2 am and I could barely keep my eyes open.

I'm usually pretty critical of musical adaptations so I tried not to get my hopes too high and kept my fingers crossed, but I honestly really liked it.

I agree with everything about Anne Hathaway. Just way too much. I also think there was more focus on the Fantine story line than in the musical, which I'm guessing has all to do with Anne.

I disagree about Cosette/Eponine. I thought Amanda sounded awful. Some of her high notes were ok, but her vibrato killed me. I feel like with the Eponine story line they didn't give it as much focus, and it was harder for the audience to connect with it. Also, moving On My Own I think took away from the poignancy of her death. I find it more heart wrenching when she's shot bringing the letter back, just after her big song. Though I do wish they'd let her really sing it out for most of her stuff. She mostly sounded breathy and unsupported, and I don't think that's because she can't sing.

I really liked Hugh Jackman, and I'm honestly not sure anyone else in Hollywood could have carried the film like he did. That being said, some of his high notes were wayyy nasal and I kept begging him to open them up.

Russell Crowe's bad singing wasn't a surprise, but for some reason I not only didn't hate it, but I actually found it changed my view of Javert in a good way. He was so obviously uncomfortable singing that there was a nice vulnerability to Javert. Not gonna lie, Stars made me cry.

Thenardier's: I wanted less fancy camera work. Sacha Baron Cohen is a brilliant comedian. He just let him do his thing. They actually came off as a little more sad than funny I thought.

I'm so happy to be happy with this, and I realized that as much as I had wanted a movie when I first discovered les mis 8 years ago, I would have been too hung up on all the little changes to really enjoy it, rather than seeing it as the bigger picture.

opinion: it was fine. definitely not the best movie i've ever seen, but i would probably see it again if they opportunity presented itself.

the one thing that kept bugging me, however, was that all these poor FRENCH people had various BRITISH accents. I mean i guess it makes more sense than speaking in american english accents, but seriously how is a little street rat kid going to get a specifically Cockney accent? I suppose it wouldn't be better if Javert threw a canadian Eh? at the end of every sentence while the kid had a southern drawl all over the place, but at least pick one British accent and run with it. I know, I know, it's totally unrealistic for any of them to even know english. but still.

So disappointed! This was my first Le Miz experience, which I know was wrong. But I've never had the time or money to see it live. I was really hoping for this movie to be epic and move me. I love musicals to death. They are normally powerful and lasting for me. But this just didn't do it. My issues:

Terrible camera angles and close up.Horrible singing from actors who shouldn't be singing. Anne and Amanda were good. But Russel and Hugh, I can't even. The music itself wasn't anything great. I dreamed a dream might be the only good piece in the whole show.

The only saving grace for me was Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Barren Cohen as the InnKeepers. But I've been told that those scenes even fell flat and weren't as funny as they should have been.

I can't compare to the actual show, but this has left me never wanting to see Le Miz again. And that makes me sad.

Norelle, I agree about the accents! It drove me insane. Could none of the actors pull off a French accent? It doesn't even seem like they tried.

I'm so excited to go see this today! Last year in chorus we did a medley that was almost 20 minutes long of Les Mis songs, which was my first experience. The chorus/ band director gave us the low down on the musical because he wanted us to understand how emotional it was and also showed us most of the 10th anniversary concert. Since then I've been hooked!

I gotta be honest, I loved all of it, and I loved how everyone played each character. The best part about musical adaptations for me is hearing different voices as parts I know well. So I dug Eddie Redmayne, thought he was a great Marius, but then, I thought everyone was great. I found nothing to complain about except that it was too forking awesome. (I'm blinded by my intense love of Les Mis)

As for the whole accent deal, Les Mis has been done with British accents since the beginning, and they probably saw no reason to change it for the film.

The people who saw it with me loved him and wanted to hold him and stroke his pretty ginger head, and bawled through Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, but I mostly thought he was pretty eh. I may have been crying at that scene but that's mostly because Empty Chairs at Empty Tables just slays me anyway...

I may be misremembering but I think I liked Marius specifically best during A Little Fall of Rain, which is weird to me since I didn't actually like that scene overall - I really didn't like the cinematography in that scene and I disliked Eponine to such a degree that I almost wanted her to just finish dying already and get it over with.

I didn't like Marius when he first showed up, but he definitely grew on me. Overall, I thought he was good.

I also REALLY liked Enjolras, who has a pretty sizable role, lots of singing, but is always underplayed. His part in the story may not be as big as Fantine's, but his actual stage time is greater - yet he's usually ignored.

_________________Ridiculous people on the internet are consistently ridiculous. -pandacookie

the one thing that kept bugging me, however, was that all these poor FRENCH people had various BRITISH accents.

THIS! Bugged the crepe outta me, especially since I saw it with my best friend who is French. Accents in movies are usually the things that get to me though, like in Melancholia when Kirsten Dunsts' entire family is British yet she had zero accent.

But, beyond that I LOVED this movie. I thought Anne Hathaway was amazing and I'm not usually a big fan of hers. Hugh Jackman was also great. Russell Crowe can suck it, I thought he was lame. But I love the music from Les Mis and I was crying through most of the movie.

Are you kidding me? The moment I saw his pretty freckled face, I fell in love.

Unf. Yes. Although, I remember reading an abridged version of Les Miserables when I was a kiddo and I think Marius Pontmercy was my first literary crush, so, I was probably going to fall in love with him either way.Overall, I really liked the movie, but like calcuhater, I would've liked it more if it were more narrative. Of course that's just the way the show is, but I find it harder to get into musicals that are like this.

Are you kidding me? The moment I saw his pretty freckled face, I fell in love.

Unf. Yes. Although, I remember reading an abridged version of Les Miserables when I was a kiddo and I think Marius Pontmercy was my first literary crush, so, I was probably going to fall in love with him either way.Overall, I really liked the movie, but like calcuhater, I would've liked it more if it were more narrative. Of course that's just the way the show is, but I find it harder to get into musicals that are like this.

Oh, his face wasn't the problem. It was just that his voice reminded me of a certain fictional character and once I heard it, that was all I could hear.

I finally saw this on Saturday and I loooved it. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to musicals, but I totally loved the casting. Russel Crowe wasn't my favorite, but he wasn't as bad as I was expecting from what I'd heard.